How YOU learned to speak Thai Language?

[Ulysses G.]

I studied the first 3 books at AUA and traveled around Thailand in between courses and used it. Back then, it was a lot easier to avoid English speakers than now and when you are forced to use a language, it is a lot simpler to remember. I do regret not learning to read and writes as my pronunciation would be much better. I can't be bothered to learn a bunch of words all over again at this point, when I can usually make myself understood.

Edited July 20, 2015 by Ulysses G.

[pgrahmm]

Everyone is going to have different things that work for them. The most important thing, is that you DO SOMETHING. I don't understand the need for spending much on classes or tutors, to be honest.. The Benjawan Poomsan Becker resources are all great. The ANKI flash card system is excellent, and free, unless you want to use it on your iPhone. Anki, Poomsan Becker books are all much better value, and a more efficient use of your time than going to a classroom.

If you have a thai friend that will help you, you can also make audio recordings, that you can listen to while you drive, etc. Poomsan Becker also has multiple audio cd's which are great for playing along.

In my opinion, for beginners/intermediate, reading and writing, is completely unnecessary, and I don't see why people are always so quick to push it. Reading and writing is good for showing off, but not imperative. That said, if you have free time in the day, and want to, it's not rocket science. 6 year olds learn how to do it, right?

LOL....

Knowing Benjawan & Nicolas they'll goad me a bit next time I'm there or they are here......

[thai006]

6 year here , i learn on the street. listen thai people . thai music , thai movie

[AZBill]

When you find out let me know! I only know what my wife has taught me and that isn't much! Damned hard language!

[JaseTheBass]

Thai is much easier than most people realize. It's akin to English that a 4 year old kid might speak. My main issue was that the more Thai I understood, the more I wished I hadn't bothered.

[blackcab]

I spent 4 months taking classes and got absolutely nowhere. I can't blame anyone else but myself as every other student in the class progressed apart from me. Some students (in my opinion) did extremely well in the same time frame compared to me.

4 months means taking the exact same class 4 times in a row. I just could not get it. I couldn't remember the words to say. I couldn't hear the tones and the text looked pretty much all the same.

It's frustrating because people expect me to magically understand because I spend time in a Thai speaking environment. In reality I understand virtually nothing.

I don't know how to embed a YouTube video here, so I'll put the link instead. This sums up my language ability:

https://youtu.be/iUCDhvbQFmU

[Ulysses G.]

The first time I took Book 1 at AUA, I thought I had learned nothing, but I went on a trip up North right afterwards, when English speakers were hard to come by. I suddenly realized that I knew a lot more than I thought I did and it helped me a lot. After that, I was not so hard on myself and just learned what I could at my own pace. I will never be a Joe Cummings, but he worked a lot harder at it than I did and probably has a propensity for languages besides. My staff say he speaks Thai better than any foreigner that they have ever heard.

Edited July 20, 2015 by Ulysses G.

[Briggsy]

3 years? Ready to start?

Forget it, absolutely no chance. It is apparent you have no intrinsic motivation.

Edited July 20, 2015 by Briggsy

[jayceenik]

I learned Thai many years ago by myself while still working in Indonesia.

I used the AUA 3 books and tapes. I was spending time off in Thailand and wanted to communicate with the lovely young bar girls.

It's absolutely not a difficult language except for the tones that are a strain on my memory circuits !

In Chiang Mai there is an AUA center offering Thai language courses for foreigners.

http://www.learnthaiinchiangmai.com/

http://www.learnthaiinchiangmai.com/index.php/the-course

Right now my TGF is studying English at the AUA center in Pattaya.

[FritsSikkink]

I learned Thai many years ago by myself while still working in Indonesia.

I used the AUA 3 books and tapes. I was spending time off in Thailand and wanted to communicate with the lovely young bar girls.

It's absolutely not a difficult language except for the tones that are a strain on my memory circuits !

.

the tones are the most important thing in the language, better go to school

[Johnnie99]

How YOU learned to speak Thai Language?

Start with good English mate.

[timmyp]

Go to school and study properly. I cannot stress that enough.

Everybody who speaks Thai at any decent level will tell you the same thing.

There are plenty of people who claim to speak Thai, but speak so poorly, and will only impress those who know nothing.

I promise that 3 months at a proper Thai language school with a half-a$sed effort will get you to a higher level than people who learned to speak with bargirls and claim to be proficient with their 30-word vocabulary.

[timmyp]

Some have talent for languages some do not....Although I can sing so can mimic and pronounce well enough......

Forced to take languages in school - could not get it down....

I'm in the some have no talent for languages category.....

It's not about talent or ability to learn a language, it's all about how much you study. If you don't study, you won't get anywhere.

Nobody just "picked up" Thai. They studied (with a book, on the internet, or at a school, etc.), and tried to speak it. People who claim they just picked it up are either lying to look clever or their Thai is atrocious (and can only impress people who know zero).

I understand people not wanting to study, but don't blame that on a lack of ability.

[LarryBird]

Truuuuth!

[micmichd]

Learned Thai "with hand and feet", by listening, watching reactions of Thais talking, and imitating it. Sometimes I had to ask, corrections are made. Thaid are friendly people, and they appreciate it if you try to learn the language.

Learned reading Thai from comparing text on packages (mostly some English, some Thai, numbers same same), from comic books, and newspapers. Pictures are really helpful there.

[oneday]

First of all, learning Thai takes a real commitment. If you aren't ready to give 100% then don't even bother. I'm 62 and I learned a bit until I got tired of learning. I went to a local school at a library here (not Chiang Mai) for a while. I also taught myself to read with computer aids and a couple of different websites that are good. I'm also a programmer so I created a program in Excel that was like a flash card system for learning to read. It took me one month at 6-8 hours a day to learn to read. I can read about 80% of what I see, but it's still difficult telling where one word ends and another starts. There are many, many clues that help, but those clues are something missing.

Reading is simply a matter of memorization, but there is a lot more to memorize than you'd think. Almost all the consonants take on a different sound at the end of a syllable or word as opposed to when they are at the beginning of the syllable or word. So you need to remember two sounds for each consonant. It's worth it though, it really is. Once you have the sounds down you can read a lot of Thai because it's phonetic, though there are some exceptions...there always is.

The best website bar none, IMO is: thai-language.com

Learning Thai is a never-ending process. If you set yourself a goal of learning just two new words a day you would have a decent vocabulary at the end of one year. Pick your two words for each day and make sure you practice them ALL day. That is how you lock them into memory. Make them very relevant words so you have many occasions to use them again and again. Or learn common phrases. Or learn groups of words such as colors or the months of the year or days of week or numbers using a flash card system. Make it yourself or find something you can download for your computer or buy something.

Every time you are out and want to know the name of something ASK and remember it.

The best advice I can give you is this. For every word you learn YOU MUST learn THREE things about that word:

1. the word

2. the tone

3. and the length of vowel.

The tone and length of vowel especially are much more important than you would think. Without learning all three Thai people will have a difficult time understanding you. And you need someone to help you learn how to do a decent job of pronouncing the tones until you get it right.

For me mid tone (our normal speak), rising tone (like a question) and low tones aren't that difficult, but I have a difficult time with falling tones and high tones. They just aren't natural for us.

Good luck.

[bazza40]

Thai is much harder to learn reading/writing than as spoken. The English alphabet 26 letters, 5 vowels. 6 if you want. Thai has 44 consonants, 24 vowels, 4 special vowels, silent vowels and 5 tones. If you are a 20 year-old falang, possible. As a 68 year-old, virtually impossible unless you have a real gift for languages.

Constant practice of spoken Thai is a given. Thais can usually work out what you are trying to say by context, even when you get the tones wrong.

A Thai dictionary app on your mobile or Kindle is also useful.

By all means attend a school such as Easy Study Thai; however, nothing beats daily communication in Thai with the Thais around you.

It is worth it to learn to communicate in Thai. Many falangs refuse to communicate in anything but English, and that's their loss.

[evadgib]

How YOU learned to speak Thai Language?

Start with good English mate.

I had an English wife but i'm alright now Edited July 21, 2015 by evadgib

[oztaurus]

Like many here I began with a book - in my case the Benjawan Poomsan Becker "Thai for Beginners". I also paid a Thai to come to my house every day for 6 weeks and go through the lessons with me.

As others have said - get out there and speak Thai with Thai people.

I think that learning to read helped me to understand better - and to get some of the words correct when Thai do the lazy l/r thing.

Two tips:

• I used my hands to emphasize the tone of the word I was using and tried to make sure that my voice followed my hand.
• I also try to learn all the other variations of the sound at the same time, that way I would know if I said it wrong, what I was saying, eg. learn dog, horse and come at the same time (the "ma" sounds), and the white, rice, them, enter, mountain, news, knee, bad fishy smell, horn ("cow" sounds) .... note, Thai teachers really don't get the concept that you want everything that might be confused with the word they are trying to teach you. Way back in the day before smartphone apps I used a whiteboard to write all the possible variations on a sound and a talking dictionary to look up their meanings - time consuming, but interesting.

[Si Thea01]

Well, what can I say... Better get used to it, this certainly won't be the last time. As others already said, adding charges wherever they can is common practise in private Thai hospitals. And it doesn't only happen to foreigners, Thais regularly end up in deep debt because they have to pay their gigantic hospital bills. The Bangkok Post had a very interesting article a few weeks back in Spectrum, but unfortunately I'm not allowed to link it here.

Regarding your other question: Every patient in a Thai hospital has the right to refuse treatment (including consultation). You're free to go whenever you feel like it. However, if you don't have some medical knowledge yourself, it's difficult to tell if the doctor is prescribing you a treatment for a reason or simply to increase the hospital's profits. With serious issues, better be safe than sorry.

What worries me even more than the 45 seconds of consultation is the antibiotics. Thai hospitals and pharmacies give out antibiotics as if they were candy, even for viruses where no antibiotic in the world has any effect at all. The only thing it does in these cases is that it makes bacteria becoming resistent against antibiotics. Read this:

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs194/en/

Have you posted to the wrong thread?

[Borzandy]

I learned Thai by myself, It's not the best way. Where I'm living, no one speaks English, my Thai speaking is pretty bad, but the most important is to be understood. So it's better for me to speak Thai than lets Thais to speak English, it's more reliable.

[RapidMethod]

My favorite topic! Some people are natural at learning languages and love to study. I'm the opposite: I'm crap at languages and I hate to waste time studying as I have better (or more enjoyable) things to do with my life.

But I wanted to speak and understand Thai because I wanted to be able to get around and communicate with people and get things done independently of a Thai gf or staff. Plus I wanted to be able to get to know Thai people (one or two women in particular) who weren't conversant in English.

I devised the Rapid Method based on the principle of "less is more". Thai is fiendishly difficult to learn if one follows the conventional, language school (Union Method)/Becker approach. I threw out everything that wasn't essential (no need to know the names of the letters or the order of the alphabet, or the obsolete letters; no need for complicated classes and tones; and no need to duplicate vowels that already exist). Watch my youtube video that explains this graphically.

Many people say or believe that one should start straight away with learning to speak Thai by listening to native Thai speakers. That's rubbish, I've tried that and I got nowhere after two years of trying. We simply don't hear what people say accurately unless we already "know" what they are saying. Except for a few very talented individuals, most people who learn this way spend many years doing so and end up speaking rather oddly in a way that not many Thais can understand.

And the majority of people who learn "spoken" Thai using a phonetic transliteration of the Thai sounds also end up speaking a mangled version of "farang Thai" that only Thais with English-speaking partners or colleagues (or bar girls) can understand. They also produce the tonal sounds like a sick opera singer. I know, because that's how I spoke when I first tried to learn Thai.

It's absolutely essential IMHO to learn to read first. Thai is actually a relatively simple, logical and highly consistent language with a straight-forward tone system. When you can read, you will know exactly how to pronounce a word accurately and with the correct tone. And you will be able to pick up Thai independently from your surroundings just by reading signs and menus and notices. It's not conversational Thai, but it's a rock-solid foundation for being able to continuously speak and understand Thai better and better.

It doesn't take long to learn to read Thai. The alphabet is really easy, but that's not sufficient to be able to actually read and pronounce Thai. I have a teaser lesson on youtube that covers the first 25 letters in 25 minutes. Give it a go. And then sign up for the free trial version of the course where you'll learn the top 30 letters and be able to read hundreds of very simple Thai words, all in about 2-3 hours.

That's the easy part. Now that you can read, the best way to learn to speak and understand Thai is to read colloquial texts and to use Anki flash cards - with mnemonics - to acquire a decent working vocabulary. You need about 1500 words to be able to get around comfortably in everyday situations and about 3500 words to be able to have relatively in-depth and intimate conversations about activities, desires, feelings, etc.

I recommend the Everyday Thai for Beginners course, developed by Kesana Watana-Dohrs at the University of Washington for basic conversation. It takes about 8 months to complete if you follow the Rapid Method (15 minutes self-study per day, plus two one-hour sessions with a Thai teacher to practice).

And then I recommend studying (and reading aloud and memorizing) a romance novel called Sydney Remember for fluent Thai to be able to socialize, make friends and talk to a girlfriend/boyfriend or lover. This takes about a year in the same leisurely fashion as for the Everyday Thai course.

The reason why a romance novel is more appropriate is that the language is usually colloquial and full of dialog, slang and everyday expressions - and the context is about everyday life, people and feelings and desires and emotions.

The Rapid Method is efficient because it focuses on need-to-know information. There's no need to learn about the provinces or festivals or government or history of Thailand when one is just starting to learn Thai. We want to converse with people about the everyday stuff that concerns and occupies them.

There are other nuances that I won't go into now, except to say that our ability to speak distinctly and fluently is primarily a muscle skill and we need to do a kind of regular face-muscle workout to build the muscle memories needed to speak without thinking. The mind is kind of like a muscle also, so it helps to follow a similar strategy as an athlete or dancer or when learning a musical instrument, i.e. little but often. Massive effort and immersion is highly inefficient. So is learning like a child because children take around 10 years to learn their own language reasonably well. We foreign adults don't have the time or inclination to work at learning Thai 8-10 hours a day for ten years. But we have other, better strategies for learning, so we can learn very much more quickly and with much less effort as a result.

Another interesting fact is that we seem to only be able to hear accurately what we already know, so it's nigh on impossible to learn a language simply by listening to it. Reading helps to train your ear to hear what people are actually saying (strange but true).

As for tones, what tones? We have tones in English too! And not every tone in a Thai sentence is actually sounded out. So what I've done in the Rapid Method is to find the same tones we have in English and apply to them the Thai language - I call them the question tone, the uncertain tone, the exciting tone and the sad tone.

The Rapid Method in a nutshell:

1. Learn to read and pronounce Thai correctly.

2. Practice speaking out loud sentence patterns. Master them like tongue twisters.

3. Focus only on conversational words, phrases and sentences.

4. Build up your vocabulary using mnemonics and spaced-repetition flash cards (like Anki).

5. Read - and master - a romance novel, read it out loud, memorize the vocabulary, listen to it being read out loud over and over again until you can hear every word clearly.

[atyclb]

Buy a few video cd's used for native children to learn the alphabet. watch it as many times as it takes. learn to write the alphabet. learn to correctly pronounce the alphabet. using english transliteration aka karaoke language does more harm than good.

there is computer software that helps to learn the alphabet. the first one i used was one put together by an australian university "australian national university" "learning thai script" (stock ref # 7707) pantip plaza had it. it taught how to write each character and also tested by speaking each character and choosing the correct character.

now theres one similar for android called "thai script" try to read thai in public places. names of bts / mrt stations, menus, car license plates, etc.

associate with mainstream local people as they usually speak correctly. many bar girls thai language ability is rather limited and their style is often not that clear.

google translate can be ok for individual words but very poor-incorrect for sentences.

i had attended a school later on after self study and we read university level material every day but the teacher did not go back and elaborate/explain sentence structure. it was generally low ed value. i guess it was rote learning, the stuff they force on their own students.

7.) Learning Thai Script.
An interactive CD-ROM that takes you through the characters and sounds of the Thai alphabet (consonants, vowels, tones and numbers) showing you how they are written, used and pronounced in everyday words.
Produced by The Multimedia Interactive Learning Laboratory in conjunction with the National Thai Studies Centre, The Australian National University.
Published by Allen & Unwin
Contact Address: 9 Atchison Street, St Leonards, New South Wales 2065, Australia.
e-mail address: [email protected].
website: http://www.allen-unwin.com.au/PUBLISH/ltsdemo.htm
(information provided by Donee White)
A site with a downloadable demo of the CD: http://www.allen-unwin.com.au/software/softwaretitlesnow.htm

A list of other materials by National Thai Study Center.

Edited July 21, 2015 by atyclb

[Monkeyrobot]

Try and find a school that shows you the English version the way Thai is spoken. For example in English they write >where is the toilet here? But in Thai it is > room water here where ? If the schools text books write it as it is said in Thai then you have a better chance of learning.

[NoshowJones]

Beyond numbers and the basics I give up. A full flight conversation to me sounds like " cuppety cuppety cuppety cuppety..."

I have learned a bit of Thai, but my problem is understanding what someone says to me.

[NoshowJones]

OP wants to speak Thai. Not read or write. Many locals can speak perfect conversational Thai but cannot read.

IMO, learning to read/write is counter-productive.

the Thais who can't read don't speak proper Thai. Your ears aren't used to hear the subtle differences in tone which would result in a completely different word. when you can read (writing not neccesary) you will know the difference

You are very correct about the tones. If you are like me and hearing not great they are hard to learn because you don't hear them that good to begin with. I am under the understanding that only 20% of the words use different tones and some of them can use all 5 tones.

It has been my experience limited as it is that most Thais can not understand what you are saying some times even though it should be obvious in the context you are using it.

Do most Thai words not only have one syllable?

[reallybigken]

I have been using the Rapid method and the Pimsleur audio language programs for a little while.

I have tried a bunch of different methods before, including Rosetta Stone (when they had Thai), and the "Rapid Method" stands out above the rest.

The Rapid method is great. It has taught me how to correctly pronounce the Thai words and phrases. A lot of Thai people are amazed at how well I pronounce the Thai language.

I started with Pimsleur audio language programs and it has helped (not as much as the Rapid Method). I listen to them on the plane or in the car. It taught me about conversation. You can get them on audibles.com (Part of Amazon.com). They are very inexpensive.

If I had to pick I would chose the Rapid method without question.

Please understand I have no affiliation with any of them. I went through a bunch of different methods and I thought I would pass on my experience. Also help keep people from wasting their money on stuff that doesn’t work.

Also note I’m in my late 50’s so learning doesn’t come as fast as it used to.

Hope this helps.

[Doznotdiz]

I learned to read/write/speak/listen at the Language Institute at CMU. It was only a 1 year course (2 evenings a week) but I did loads of homework, and the Thai alphabet was drummed into us every lesson - consequently I shall never forget it. Since then I have only tried to advance using the YMCA (once) but it was very disappointing. Instead I spend a few hours per week learning on my own, but unfortunately my vocabulary only extends to 1000 words. However I can read signs, text friends in Thai, and converse reasonably well. I would advise getting a good course that teaches reading and writing as well as speaking/listening because the characters are very interesting. Also - imperative that you buy a dictionary that has Thai-English, English-Thai, and PHONETIC THAI-ENGLISH.

[NoshowJones]

Some have talent for languages some do not....Although I can sing so can mimic and pronounce well enough......

Forced to take languages in school - could not get it down....

I'm in the some have no talent for languages category.....

It's not about talent or ability to learn a language, it's all about how much you study. If you don't study, you won't get anywhere.

Nobody just "picked up" Thai. They studied (with a book, on the internet, or at a school, etc.), and tried to speak it. People who claim they just picked it up are either lying to look clever or their Thai is atrocious (and can only impress people who know zero).

I understand people not wanting to study, but don't blame that on a lack of ability.

An English guy I know, speaks Thai very well, I have watch and listened to him talking on the phone to a Thai, he just picked it up by himself, no books or classes.

[dotpoom]

I know not how to do it. By listening and copying any ex-bar girl........Never ceases to amaze be hearing a guy speak his version on half english mixed with half barthai....takes 20 IQ points off the top.

Don't really understand why you say that...many Thai people understand small English words in everyday use but don't understand a lot of words that they do not hear in everyday chat. I find it makes life a lot easier when making conversation if I can say the word they don't understand in Thai....only common sense really?